Did Jesus claim to be God when arrested by answering the
authorities, “ego eimi” (I am)? Those intent on finding evidence that
Jesus is God seize upon the Greek words ego eimi, translated “I am” in
English, and imagine a direct correspondence to the famous “I am” statements God
gave Moses at the burning bush. Is such a leap from Greek words to Hebrew words
and from one context to an entirely different one justified?

First, the words and context of the olive grove encounter.
An entourage of Roman troops and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees,
intent upon finding and arresting Jesus, had been tipped off by Judas on where
to find him. In the night darkness they came upon Jesus and his little band of
disciples. Jesus stepped forth and asked them, “Who is it you want?” and they
replied, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus, not wanting to endanger his disciples
quickly responded, “I am he” (ego eimi) (Jn 18:3-8, NIV). There is no
shadow of a hint in this account that Jesus is announcing he is God or that he
was using code language for God, or that he was invoking the
Exodus 3:14 “I am” amplification of the divine name, Yahweh.
Jesus was simply using proper grammar to identify himself to those seeking him,
“I am he.” The “he” is not necessary to be included in text as it implied by the
use of the verb “to be,” which most translators readily acknowledge. Similarly,
when Peter was being sought by some men sent from Cornelius, he met them and
said, “I am (ego eimi) whom you seek” (Acts 10:21).

Frequently Jesus used the common words ego eimi in
their normal usage to describe himself and his mission: “I am the bread of
life”; “I am the light of the world”; “I am the way”; “I am going away”; etc.
Some, intent on finding any hint that Jesus is God, have played word games with
Jesus’ normal, plain speech, ignored context, and invented references and
meanings where none exist.

What has given license to this willing misunderstanding of
Jesus’ use of ego eimi? It stems from the story in the Hebrew Scriptures
of Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush. Moses is offering another
objection to God’s calling him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt (Exodus
3:13-15). God had already introduced himself in vs 6, “I am the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” But Moses
says to God, what if the Israelites want to know more about you than just that
you are “the God of your fathers,“ and they ask me, “What is his name?” (vs 13).

In the ancient world Shakespeare’s question: “What’s in a
name?” would have been taken very seriously. Names were important and a person’s
self was expressed and contained in his name. Of Nabal (lit., “fool”) it was
said sarcastically: “As his name is, so is he” (1Sam 25:25). Did the Israelites
not know that the God of their fathers was called Yahweh? After all, the divine
name Yahweh (YHWH, confusingly rendered LORD in most English translations) is
common in the text from Genesis 4:26
onwards and may have been part of Israelite tradition. Regardless, God knew
Moses saw the dangers and wanted further assurances he could offer an oppressed
and frightened people.

God replied to Moses’ request with the complex and
difficult to render: “I am who I am.” Few verses in the OT have been the subject
of more heated controversy than this Hebrew expression. The abbreviated “I am”
in vs 14 is simply shorthand for the complete Hebrew phrase.

Over the years there has emerged a general consensus among
leading OT scholars that the phrase likely carries one or more of the following
meanings: “I cause to be what comes into existence” (echoing the formula of Ex 33:19 “I create what I create” or more simply,
“I am the Creator”; “The one who is”; “I cause to be”; “I am present.” These
enigmatic three Hebrew words have been paraphrased by scholars: “I am here,
really present, ready to help”; “I am truly he who exists and who will be
dynamically present then and there in the situation to which I am sending you.”

What Moses believed the Israelites really needed to know
was, “What does that name mean or signify in circumstances such as
we are in?” The “I am that I am” statement by God was a powerful expression of
his character, nature and essence and harkens back to his promise in vs 12, “I
will be with you.” The “I am” expression was not a new name for Yahweh in fact
not a name at all, but an affirmation of his immediate presence and power to
carry out the deliverance he planned for his people Israel. It is a description
of what God’s name means to his people—“I am with you.”

But God does give a specific answer to the question of his
name and it appears in the next verse (vs 15): Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD
[Heb. Yahweh], the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and
the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my name forever, the name by which
I am to be remembered from generation to generation.”

The divine name isn’t “I am,” but Yahweh. Jesus wasn’t
appropriating a divine name, “I am”—which wasn’t a name—to claim he was the God
who spoke to Moses. Peter said “the God of our fathers” is the one who raised
Jesus from the grave and glorified him (Acts 3:13). Jesus prayed to his father,
“I have manifested thy name” (John 17:6, 26). What Jesus did, wasn’t to claim to
be Yahweh, but to carry out his mission to reveal the very character and
purposes of God—all beautifully displayed in Jesus’ Gospel of the Kingdom of
God. –Mel Hershberger & Ken Westby

Relative to the above
discussion, the following comments from Noel Rude are added below. (Noel is a professional linguist and lives in the state of
Oregon. His website is: www.hebdomad.com.

PS: Your article, “Is Jesus The
Great ‘I AM’?”, good article. Here, forgive me for putting in my two cents.
Anyway, seven times in John Jesus
identifies himself with ἐγώ
εἰμι
and each time—except in John 8:58—the
KJV
translates as “It is I” or “I am he”:

John 6:20
— “But he saith unto them, It is I [ἐγώ
εἰμι];
be not afraid.”

3

John 8:24— “I
said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye
believe not that I am he [ἐγώ
εἰμι],
ye shall die in your sins.”

4

John 8:28
— “Then
said Jesus unto them,
When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am
he [ἐγώ
εἰμι],
and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me,
I speak these things.”

Thus also the blind
man who was healed and thence cast out of the synagogue identifies himself with
ἐγώ
εἰμι
(John 9:9): “Some said, This is he: others said,
He is like him: but he said, I am he [ἐγώ
εἰμι].”

One might ask why the verb is accented (ἐγὼ
εἰμί)
only in John 8:58
whereas the pronoun alone is accented (ἐγώ
εἰμι)
everywhere else. First we should say that the accents are the work of the
compilers of our texts. The original Greek manuscripts have no accents and it
is therefore scholars who have put the accent on the verb in John 8:58, perhaps to emphasize the contrast
between γενέσθαι
‘to become’ and εἰμί
‘I am’ (if not to connect Exodus 3:14).

πρὶν
ἀβραὰμ
γενέσθαι

Before Abraham
came to be/will come to be

ἐγὼεἰμί

I am he.

Greek πρίν
‘before’ requires an infinitive whose tense must be supplied by context, as in
Mark 14:30,

πρὶν
... φωνῆσαι
‘before [the cock] crow ...’

Note how the same infinitive γενέσθαι
(as in John 8:58) occurs in John 13:19 (with implied future tense):
“Now I tell you before it come [πρὸ
τοῦ
γενέσθαι], that, when it is
come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.” In like manner let me
suggest that the infinitive in John
8:58 derives its tense from εἰμί
‘I am’, meaning that our verse should be read something like, “before Abraham
comes to be [is resurrected], I am [the messiah].”